Should Have Paid Attention

ALL – Psalm 27:1-6
ALL – Proverbs 6:20-26
OT – Exodus 15:19-17:7
NT – Matthew 22:1-33

Have you ever been around people who want so badly to be right that they ignore evidence, no matter how good it is? I suppose various evolutionists like Richard Dawkins would accuse me of ignoring solid evidence so that I can maintain my belief in God. But then, I would accuse them of the converse—they ignore solid evidence so that they can maintain their belief in evolution.

Anyways… Are we in agreement that sometimes people ignore evidence just to maintain their point of view?

That’s what the Sadducees were doing. They didn’t believe in the resurrection, so they made up a ridiculous (though possible) story to prove their belief that the resurrection was not a reality. The premise of their story was that, if there were a resurrection, people who were married in this life would automatically be married in the next life. A possibly valid assumption, I suppose, but a big assumption to base an argument on.

So in their story, a man gets married and dies without having children. In that culture, his brother would marry the widow and have children for him. So brother number 2 marries her. But then he dies without having kids. So brother number 3 marries her. And then 4, 5, 6 and 7. All of them die. Finally she dies. (Matthew 22:23-27).

At this point in the story, I’m personally just thinking, “That’s terrible, but what’s this have to do with anything?” Just wait for it—the punchline’s coming.

So whose wife will she be in the resurrection? For she was the wife of all seven of them! – Matthew 22:28, The Living Bible

Ahhhh, blindness. Deliberate ignorance. The bliss. The stupidity. It’s amazing.

Here’s Jesus’ response:

Your error is caused by your ignorance of the Scriptures and of God’s power! – Matthew 22:29, The Living Bible

Ignorance of the Scriptures. Ignorance of God’s power. The Sadducees had only been able to come up with this creative “proof” that the resurrection was a ridiculous concept because they had ignored God’s words in the Scriptures. They had assumed that marriage in this life meant marriage in the next and had ignored any teachings in God’s Word that pointed to the resurrection. Further, they had ignored God’s power. They had assumed that resurrection was too difficult a task for God, and perhaps that sorting out crazy situations like the one in their story was too difficult a task for God, too!

Listen. God is capable of doing whatever He says He’ll do. So it’s not up to us to try and figure out what God can and can’t do. We’re to respect His power enough to trust that He can do pretty much anything. And if we don’t ignore His power, then the only question left is, “What does God say He’ll do?” The answer to that question is found in the Scriptures—His Word. So we had better not ignore the Scriptures, either.

Otherwise, we’ll find ourselves making the same stupid kinds of arguments the Sadducees made—arguments that become irrelevant as soon as the Scriptures and God’s power are brought into the picture.

What teachings do you find hard to believe? And why? Could you be ignoring God’s power and Word?

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